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I've picked up this game for the first time in ages, going back to basics with TW1 until I get a grip on things. Averland now belongs to the rightful Emperor, but something seems amiss... 
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Mar 21, 2023 00:48
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 20:19 |
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So as the vampires, is there any particular trick to fighting Empire armies with lots of guns and artillery? I'm now moving south and took Arkdorf, but Matorca is full of guns and I'm not used to playing vamps. I have a lord to act as an army ferry bringing Mannfred grave guard (both normal and great weapons) and black knights, but I'm not sure it's enough - I need my second army guarding the north and west against the unending tides of beastmen. Or maybe I should let vampiric corruption ramp up in the Border Princes and let that weaken Matorca for me. I am using autoresolve because I suck at the tactical battles, though.
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Mar 21, 2023 13:20
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And pulled it off, after which Karl Franz decided to seek a non-aggression pact, and I will honor it for the time being. Next time you summon the elector counts, Franz, it may be a wise idea to send away the witch hunters first...
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Mar 21, 2023 13:50
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Squibbles posted:Autoresolve is very unkind to some factions and undead are one of them. It doesn't seem to take into account the level of healing you have nor the ability to tarpit the enemy and crush their ranged with dogs and such. Until you get an insane murder beast of an army it is not going to fare well in auto resolves. That said, to obtain a murderous army you can just make some cheap armies of zombies and skeletons then smash them against your enemies to make some good raise dead sites. You'll be rolling in blood knights and terrorgeists before you know it. No need to ferry good troops to your front lines with all these perfectly good ones laying there in the ground just waiting to be risen. Fair enough. I enjoy the strategic map part of Total War games but am awful at the tactical battles. :/ Oh well, I'm rolling south with Mannfred. May as well go for the achievements for taking out all the southern factions before I wheel north.
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Mar 21, 2023 14:04
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And that game of Total Warhammer went completely to hell in the blink of an eye. Another lesson learned, don't skimp on defenses in your heartlands. Goatmen will gently caress your poo poo up. Over-extended with my two main armies and the threat struck from a direction I thought was safe. Oh well. I'm learning from every loss, I hope.
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Mar 21, 2023 16:21
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Note to self: check victory objectives when starting a new Mortal Empires campaign. With the vamps in the toilet I elected to boot up a new game as Kroq'Gar in Mortal Empires, and silly me thought Lybara would make a fine ally for the Great Plan. Alas. Time to backstab a NAP/military access/trade agreement partner who only holds one minor settlement. Sorry, lady. The Great Plan has no place for you.
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Mar 21, 2023 18:03
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My Mannfred campaign ended in disaster (mainly thanks to surprise goatmen), so Thorgrim rides again, this time in Mortal Empires. It feels weird to not go after Grimgor right off the bat and head off in this direction, but the best solution to skaven corruption getting annoying is to kill all the skaven responsible.
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Mar 22, 2023 21:58
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I've never done a dwarfs in the desert campaign before in Mortal Empires, but Thorgrim Grudgebearer and Nakai the Wanderer have become badlands bros in the east. Also End Times canon says what. 
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Mar 23, 2023 17:08
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And now that dwarf campaign has gone into disaster. While my big army was away chasing rats, Grimgor came knocking and I couldn't stop him. :/ I want to like these games so much but I'm proving so consistently bad at them. Lesson learned to not overextend, I suppose.
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Mar 23, 2023 19:07
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feller posted:Dwarfs have to play pretty defensively compared to most races. Are you building the garrison building in your settlements? Those and a half stack can defend against almost anything once you get some practice at minor settlement battles. Yup, did just that. Was not enough. Then a full stack I had moving out to reinforce my settlements in the east got wiped out by orcs at the same time. I want to like these games, but the learning curve is very, very steep.
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Mar 23, 2023 20:03
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Cardboard Fox posted:What's your army comp look like? Dwarves should not have too many problems with Orcs. Quarrelers melt pretty much anything other than Savage Orcs, and a strong front line of Dwarf Warriors can hold against anything other than maybe Black Orcs. My armies were built to a spec of two grudge throwers and then an even mix of warriors and quarrelers. Plus Thorgrim's starting master engineer. Thorgrim had lightning strike but he was off in the east hunting skaven.
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Mar 23, 2023 20:31
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Well I'm back at it with Thorgrim. Took my licks, regrouped, and am now in a fairly stable pattern of damage control playing whack-an-orc. Not exactly making any headway, but I've stabilized and things aren't getting worse so far. Wiping out three grudges with one turn of raiding helped a lot. Surely Grimgor will run out of armies to throw at me. Surely.
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Mar 24, 2023 00:58
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I love irondrakes. Deathmaster Snikch, not so much. They're why he's down to two settlements. I will say I'm warming to this game a lot now that I feel like I'm in control again rather than getting randomly reamed in whatever spot I don't have an army.
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Mar 24, 2023 16:01
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 I think Thorgrim Grudgebearer just acquired some very confused and peculiar subjects.
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Mar 25, 2023 01:49
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 DIE! Of course, now I'm at war with Clan Moulder to the north instead and I don't think Ungrim's solitary army, which I thought was just mopping up Azhag's remnants, is enough. It never loving ends with the skaven...
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Mar 25, 2023 15:57
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Dwarf question: I've got a grudge to raid a region belonging to the skaven. Skaven, obviously, aren't listed as controlling territory. I found a skaven-held city, but the only way to get close enough to count as being in skaven territory is to attack it. I don't see a way to get close enough to count as being in skaven territory but still be eligible to raid. Any advice?
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Mar 25, 2023 17:53
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NewMars posted:You can have one army siege it and another stand next to them. Sieging negates the zone of control thing that prevents you from getting right up to a city without attacking it. That did the trick, thanks!  The Age of Reckoning is rolling right along despite cracking open a new can of rats, Grimgor still not being dead, and Zhufbar and Karan Norn still refusing to confederate because they have the distrusts dwarfs diplomatic trait despite being one-city factions.
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Mar 25, 2023 18:21
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Chad Sexington posted:Yeah I decided to abandon my Dorf IE campaign because the prospect of exterminating the rats seemed exhausting. Exhausting, but worth it. Clan Mors is dead, too, served up on a platter between Kroq'Gar and Tik'taq'to. I feel like I hit a tipping point in this campaign. I was struggling tooth and nail for my life and then suddenly I hit a critical mass and everything started going my way as almost everyone left were small powers next to my overwhelming might. Minus the grind against Clan Moulder I'm now embroiled in, that will take some doing yet. Still, it's a refreshing feeling changing from fighting for sheer survival against powerful enemies to picking and choosing fights against weaker neighbors to serve my campaign objectives. Alas, three of the one-city dwarf minors I need to control have Distrust Dwarfs so I'll need to either ally with them or kill them since they won't confederate.
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Mar 25, 2023 21:02
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THE BAR posted:Sounds like one for the book to me. Believe me, I've thought about it.  But for now my plan is to work on clearing out the north of skaven and vikings while Thorgrim goes sailing to pick up victory cities. I'm expecting Archaon and his groupies to be showing up any turn now. The Border Princes of all factions went on a tear in my game, so I ultimately had to cancel the treaties, go to war to grab Valenka Hills for the victory condition and then also Sartosa which they owned for the victory city point, and then peace out with them. Also, is Thorgrim unable to confederate with Belagor? Zhufbar, Karak Norn, and Kraka Drak all just don't want to confederate because they don't trust me, but I flat out don't see the option to try with Belagar.
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Mar 25, 2023 23:24
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Legendary Ptarmigan posted:Do you own the King and the Warlord DLC for TW:WH1? You can only confederate legendary Lords whose faction DLC you own. Occasionally you will be able to get DLC units if you confederate a minor faction. Ah, no. I haven't gotten any of the paid LL DLCs. I'll just have to ally Belagor or spank him in the name of the High King when the time comes.
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Mar 25, 2023 23:32
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Welp. My game has officially hit the 'welp just shoot everything that moves' point as the moment the Chaos invasion was over the entire loving world descended into a tantrum spiral and I have wound up at war with about six new enemies over the course of about two turns. Edit: Make that four, Thorgrim and Grombrindal got to work.  
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Mar 27, 2023 |
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Mar 27, 2023 02:12
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Thanks to Orion's suicide I now have a clear plan to finish out this game. Getting Corounne - currently held by Wulfrik - and then also Galleon's Graveyard and Naggarond will bring me up to the 17 required victory cities. Then I also need Zhufbar and one city held by Tik'taq'to. Hitting both of those would obviously [further] tank my diplomatic reliability, but if I can line this up right it shouldn't be difficult to accomplish all my other objectives, line up armies outside those two cities, and in the same turn declare two new wars, grab the two cities, and win the campaign, long-term consequences are moot. This has been one messy game, but a win's a win and I don't think there's anything left in the world that can actually stop me, just varying degrees of inconvenience. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Mar 27, 2023 |
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Mar 27, 2023 12:06
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SirPhoebos posted:You're already a better dawi player than that one goon that claims to have years of experience and yet can't figure out how to get past Grimgrog. Grimgor was never a serious threat in my game, really. He was perpetually annoying, but I never felt like he might actually kill me. I discovered afterwards that he was the meat in a Thorgrim and Tik'taq'to sandwich, so that seems to have kept him from gathering enough force to do more than briefly take a minor settlement for a couple of turns. No, the big threat of my early game would be the goddamn skaven, especially Snikch. I'm pretty sure he murdered Imrik, Malus, and Nakai before I finally pushed the bastard back and eventually crushed him.
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Mar 27, 2023 21:03
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That's odd. My tactic every battle with Grimgor that I didn't autoresolve boiled down to using my lord to tank Grimgor while I shot and burned his army until he fled from army losses.
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Mar 27, 2023 22:29
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The entire rest of the Athel Loren is now after me and just dealt me my first legit defeat in the field in a while. Jesus, wood elves are nasty.
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Mar 27, 2023 23:28
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Meanwhile, I received notice that Clan Pestilens has been eradicated. There are no more skaven LLs in the game. As such, I decided two of my possessions needed new names.
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Mar 27, 2023 23:57
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  Hey guys, there's multiple dwarf war fleets entering the bay, and one of them is lead by the White Dwarf himself. Should we be concerned? Nah, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.
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Mar 28, 2023 02:15
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 They have wronged us, and now they know our power. I thought I got massively screwed over towards the end by Settra abruptly dying and the wood elves suddenly wanting my head, but Kroq'Gar proved surprisingly amenable to a giant truckload of gold in exchange for an alliance and the various wood elf factions, while all pains in the rear end, only had one big army each and I could replace my losses faster than they could.
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Mar 28, 2023 02:47
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SirPhoebos posted:Glad you enjoyed Total Warhams! I enjoyed the game, but not 'pay full price for the third installment' enjoyed. I have the two base games, plus a friend gifted me Vampire Coast which she had an extra code for. I will definitely pick up more stuff the next time there's a big sale, though, Tomb Kings and TW3 are at the top of my list, followed by Warriors of Chaos. Beastmen, wood elves, Norsca, and chaos dwarves are eh. In general, some thoughts on my experience with the campaign: * Both strategically and tactically, dwarves (or at least Thorgrim) felt very polarizing. Either I was struggling tooth and nail to survive or I was steamrolling, and the overall course of the game felt like flipping a switch when I finally hit the critical mass of troop quality and quantity to start really winning. * I would have appreciated more enemy variety, especially early in the game. I felt like about 75% of my battles throughout the entire game were against greenskins and skaven, and most of the rest were Norsca and WoC once that mess started. I had a few battles with vampires, beastmen, wood elves (intense, but few), and Imperials. I had one battle each with pirates, high elves, dark elves, and lizardmen. I never fought Tomb Kings at all. * Dwarves felt like their cardinal weakness on the battlefield was against an enemy that could outshoot them - i.e. wood elves. I'd been told this was an issue and it was true, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I drowned the wood elves in numbers, not superior tactics, my attempts at using weirder things like copters didn't go well. * I feel that the 17 city victory requirement is either a bit too much, or they need to be more broadly spread out. There's what, four in the entirety of the New World, one out in the ocean, two in Ulthuan, and two in the Southlands? I'd been hoping that my next game wouldn't really touch the Old World after this game being focused there, but I don't think that's possible. * Relatedly, I feel that the map might be just too drat big for how fast armies move. Even stacking up every campaign movement range buff I could get on my armies I felt like I never had remotely enough movement, especially when my empire started to sprawl and I started sailing across the ocean to get more victory cities. * gently caress the 'your lord didn't move a lot' traits. I had multiple armies on garrison duty because my empire was loving huge and there were lots of enemies nibbling at the borders. You'd think the dwarves of all people would understand and respect having defensive armies holding station on the frontiers ready to respond to attacks. * Belagor Ironhammer is a massive rear end in a top hat, even as an ally. If I'd known I couldn't confederate him at the time, I honestly should have just killed him in retrospect. Guy was more trouble as an ally than he was worth. * Something I know TW3 fixes, I really missed the ability to gift cities to my allies. I wound up in possession of a good chunk of the Empire, Bretonnia, southern realms, the eastern steppes, and literally all of Kislev and the Athel Loren among other places because I needed this territory secure while I was rolling against some bag of dicks or another but the climate almost universally sucked for dwarves. I really wish I could have given some of this territory to Karl or some other ally. I don't know who I'll play next. Maybe pirates (specifically considering Aranessa), maybe lizardmen, maybe high elves. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Mar 28, 2023 |
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Mar 28, 2023 12:17
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bobtheconqueror posted:I really enjoy Count Noctilus as a vampirates leader. He starts in the middle of the ocean so he's got kind of free reign to do whatever he wants, although vampirates have the issue of most factions hating them, and not even being on all that good terms with each other. His victory conditions, and how the victory cities that everyone in TW2's Mortal Empires need in addition to their LL-specific goals, still push him towards conquering the Old World. I think the victory cities might be my biggest gripe about Mortal Empires. I think there's 21 in the game, and you need 17 of them for a long campaign victory. Three of these are in Lustria. Two are in Ulthuan. Two are in the Southlands. One is in Naggaroth. One is in the middle of the sea. The rest are all in the Old World, some of them very close together. I might do a Vortex campaign next just in the game of wanting to spend the majority of the game somewhere other than the Old World.
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Mar 28, 2023 14:43
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AtomikKrab posted:By the way Cythereal, if you are wondering how you SUDDENLY got a bunch of wars out of nowhere. If you were not at war with anyone? Well the title of the series is TOTAL WAR for a reason, if you ever end a turn not a war with SOMEONE, guess what? you are going to be next turn RANDOMLY Yeah, folks on discord told me as such. Not surprising, I just would have preferred to be able to pick my battles at a time of my choosing. As it was, my mood for most of the game was 'everything is on fire, but stable.'
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Mar 28, 2023 18:37
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...I was not expecting that to work. Started a pirate game as Aranessa and bum rushed Ikit Claw immediately. And... wiped him out in one stroke.  Well that's one less pain in the rear end to worry about.
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Mar 29, 2023 00:03
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I've instead ranged east with Aranessa, sacking and pillaging orcs and Border Princes as I go while my second army deals with the pissed-off elves coming for me. This has also had the interesting effect of getting the dwarves to like me because I'm beating up people they hate.
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Mar 29, 2023 12:32
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Bahahaha. Dwarves took Black Crag, Grimgor took it back, then I grabbed it with a big army that won't let go. Pirates indeed. I'm already up to four victory cities. Sartosa, Miragliano, Skavenblight, and Black Crag. I'm going to cross my fingers and see if I can grab Karak Eight Peaks while I'm here. I know the long campaign wants me to stomp Norsca, but I'm kind of on a roll out here in the Badlands shooting orcs with my dwarf ?buddies?
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Mar 30, 2023 01:58
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I've come to appreciate that a Vampire Coast game in TW lets you shoot off in whatever direction you'd like. Aranessa has wound up down in the Southlands fighting skaven after taking Black Crag and Karak Eight Peaks, because Lahmia's another victory city and while I'm here, raiding and pillaging the rats is as good as any other victim.
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Mar 31, 2023 01:04
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So can pirates not confederate? I've made friends with Noctilus because I was expecting to be able to confederate him, but I'm not seeing the option.
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Mar 31, 2023 12:15
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Dang. Wish the faction select screen had told me that (or been in a more obvious place if it did). Oh well. Sorry, Noctilus. You seem like an enjoyably hammy bad guy, but I suppose the traveling natural disaster that is Aranessa's fleet will be coming for you once she makes her way out of the Southlands. For my second real game it's been interesting to see how differently things have played out. Queek and Imrik are both doing far, far better than they did in my dwarf campaign. Well. Queek was doing better before Aranessa grabbed Lahmia from him and has gone on a tear through the region.
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Mar 31, 2023 12:58
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ninjahedgehog posted:At the very least I think it would be cool if every faction had a designated horde LL -- a lot of them are position far from home but aren't really supposed to be empire building. Alith Anar or Volkmar, for instance If they ever add Elspeth von Drachen she wouldn't be a bad call for an Imperial horde. Death caster on a dragon with a horde sounds like a fun diversion from the norm for Empire.
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Mar 31, 2023 22:22
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As the vampirates in TW, it's honestly kind of refreshing to accept that everyone's going to hate me no matter what I do, all peace treaties are temporary, and I should feel free to pillage and plunder whoever I feel like.
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Apr 1, 2023 00:12
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 20:19 |
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 Er, Aranessa, what the gently caress is wrong with you?
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Apr 1, 2023 17:28
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